1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to apparatus and techniques for vaporizing metallic elements or salts and further temperature controlled handling and processing of the metal or metal salt vapors for use in material processing operations, for example, semiconductor processing. The further processing may include ionization for possible subsequent ion implantation, or participation in a deposition process.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of techniques and apparatuses are known for modifying or coating substrates to form new compositions. For example, ion implantation is used to implant ions into substrates to create new materials. Also, deposition processes, such chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD or sputtering) are well known to practitioners of materials science, for example, in the semiconductor processing arts, for depositing layers of different materials on substrates.
Such techniques and the resulting compositions have proven useful in the semiconductor processing arts for a variety of purposes. For example, ion implantation has been used to dope semiconductor substrates and CVD and PVD processes have been used to deposit polysilicon or barrier layer materials. With continued miniaturization of integrated circuits, new materials and processing techniques with improved performance characteristics in smaller device size realms are constantly being sought.
Accordingly, techniques and apparatuses for the fabrication of new materials with uses in semiconductor processing are desirable. Also, techniques and apparatuses with improved process control enabling the more precise tailoring of a material for particular purpose would be desirable. Such apparatuses and techniques would find use in the semiconductor processing context and beyond.